LiCoO2 is currently being used in over 95% of commercial lithium and lithium-ion secondary batteries as the active positive electrode material. The current production rate of lithium and lithium-ion batteries is about 30 million units per month with each unit containing about 10-15 g of LiCoO2 (i.e., 300-450 metric tons/month).
LiCoO2 can be made by a number of different methods by reacting a lithium salt and a cobalt salt. However, these methods often involve lengthy reaction times thereby reducing the rate of LiCoO2 production.
Therefore, there is a need in the art to provide a method of preparing LiCoO2 that demonstrates good performance in rechargeable lithium and lithium-ion secondary batteries and that can be produced with a relatively short reaction time.